The River Queen: A Memoir

This book is all about the trials and realizations of a mother whose family is gone and she has nothing to do now. I actually enjoyed this book because it showed a different side to the world. A much more mellow, and "go-with-the-flow" kind of feeling. The traveling crew on the boat didn't have any plans, and just went with what happened. It was nice to be able to read and experience something different like that in a book.

I would like to read another writing by Mary Morris sometime in the future because she has a flow, and graceful way of writing that makes you feel like you're in the book. That you're on the boat looking out on the Mississippi horizon, in this case. It was a very perspective book to realize how crazy your own life is, and to be able to kick back and relax and live someone else's life for a few moments.

I have read other books by Mary Morris and have always enjoyed them. So I was excited to find this one. This could have been a fascinating story; except that I as a reader lost my patience with the author very quickly. If I was a river runner and she was my passenger, I'd have thrown her out with the anchor. She obviously did not know what she was getting into, had a very naive view of what the journey would be like, and didn't seem to be learning much. She complained constantly and got too much into daily minutea. Tho I ended up not finishe it, topic still interests me, and I hope to find a better book about that journey soon.

In her memoir, The River Queen, Mary Morris takes her readers on a unique journey down the mighty Mississippi as she makes a private journey of her own--coming to terms with her father's passing. Her naïveté is refreshing, and she admits early in the book, "I don't have the river in my head, yet." Unlike the writer's friend, who never thought about the river despite growing up in St. Louis, I grew up twenty miles southeast of St. Louis, and the river has been a large presence in my life. Like many Midwesterners, I have traveled the river and visited some of the places Morris describes. By the book's end, Morris has changed. She has learned things about her father's life and about herself, contentment evident as she pilots the last leg of her journey with the river firmly fixed in her head. I agree with T.S. Eliot, "The sea is around us, but the river is in us." Reading Morris's memoir will put a little of the river in every reader.

Mary Morris' father lived to the age of 102. He was many things during his long life; dandy, ladies man, business man, developer, husband and father. He also left strong memories in his daughter of his uncontrollable and unreasonable rages that he took out on whatever family member happened to be near. A portion of his life, but by no means all of it, was spent in small towns along the banks of the Mississippi River. Mary hires a houseboat, and sets off on a journey down the river to try and reconcile her grief, ambivalent feelings, and understand her father's roots better. Sounds like a fascinating journey. The trip down the river is an adventure in itself, encountering hurricanes, hazardous currents, and busy shipping channels that make navigating the houseboat a serious undertaking. Ms Morris writes well. The story flows, and the transit between musings on her memories and telling the story of her river journey is smooth and not jarring. It is a well written book. However, the story both of the river trip and her father seemed superficial to me. She tells mostly of everyday occurrences; who cooks dinner, where they eat on the boat, and the never-ending quest for a hot shower. The towns they visit are only given sketchy portrayal. She mostly doesn't care for the people they meet, and gives them a wide, therefore un-insightful berth. Her father's life lives within the same boundaries her memory supplied before the trip. She finds no insight, does not experience either elation, grief, or camaraderie of his memory by being on the river. A good travel book can be engrossing. A good book of exploration of familial ties can be enlightening. I was neither engrossed, nor enlightened, but I was also not bored to the point of giving up. I read the book waiting for the "other shoe to fall", and it never does. Nor will I take any memories from this book as I lead my life. I read it, it's done. Reading this book is like holding a handful of Mississippi river water; it trickles between your fingers, then it's gone.

I loved the River Queen and am sharing it with the group that I am escorting on a Mississippi River cruise on the American Queen next July. Mary Morris gave wonderful discriptions of the Mississippi as she learned to love the river. I can just picture the "River Queen" as she called the house boat she was on with Tom and Jerry, 2 great river boat captains. She also understood her father much better after her trip. When we cruise in the luxury of the American Queen we will remember Mary's cramped quarters in the cabin, the shower that didn't work, the locks and dams she went through, the heat, the bugs and enjoy our turn even more! I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about the Mississippi.